Lost and Finding Joy

“Where did my responsibility lie?…this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for “a hint from Heaven,” as the phrase goes.”~ Viktor E. Frankl

In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl is faced with the dilemma of either accepting an invitation to go to the American Consulate in Vienna to pick up his immigration visa shortly before the US entered World War II; or staying with his aged parents who would be alone to face their fate of eventually being sent to a concentration camp. He said, “…this was the type of dilemma that made one wish for a hint from Heaven…”

He noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home and asked his father about it. His father told him that the marble came from a site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue. The marble was part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed. Frankl said:

One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments. Eagerly I asked, “Which one is it?” He answered, “Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land.” At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse.”

Man’s Search for Meaning, Preface to the 1992 Edition, p xvi, VIKTOR E. FRANKL

Trusting in something greater than ourselves gives us a guidance system. This doesn’t mean that we get a free pass from any type of suffering. You could say that Frankl had extreme suffering for making the decision to stay behind with his parents. With the advantage of hindsight, however, we can see that his days were long upon the land. Because of his endurance and strength, we have the gift of learning that we can overcome the influence of our own circumstances; and that through our suffering we have an opportunity to grow and become strengthened in some way.

As Frankl describes in his book, “Man can preserve a vestige of spiritual freedom, of independence of mind, even in such terrible conditions of psychic and physical stress…everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms–to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. ” (Man’s Search For Meaning p 65-66).

We are always receiving a hint from heaven. When we listen to what our conscience is telling us, and when we endure, it’s our spiritual freedom that makes life both meaningful and purposeful.